Home Built Turbine

[TheStig]

Well this is the random thread, so I guess this is the best place to put it. Okay so a little backround on our project in progress:

 

It all started two weeks ago when me and my friend were watching an episode of mythbusters where a vaccum cleaner was turned into a jet engine. That night, we started our very own turnbine engine. We both have a lot of aviation experience, and have A LOT of knowledge of turbines. My cousin works for the engine department at GE, so some handy diagrams were sent to us to build our miniture turbine.

 

Now, we built this thing so that anyboody could build one using off the shelf items or things laying around the house. For the turbine blades, we used 3 large "computer cooling fans", two of them glued together at the back. With a few modifications, we used a 3/16" brass tube as a fan shaft to connect the fans together. The fans are housed inside 4" aluminum piping and the whole thing is about 2' long.

 

For a fuel pump, we took a electric motor and hooked it up to a model airplane fuel pump, and then connected it to a train transformer. The fuel passes through the pump, up about 3 feel of fuel line which is connected to a sprayer made out of a spray paint can nozzel. The fuel we are using is model airplane 18% nitro fuel.

 

The ignition source, however, has give us problems. We are currently going to use a wind resistant lighter to create ignition when we start it by means of a vaccum blowing onto the fans. This SHOULD ignite the nitro and thus start the turbine.

 

We have not tried to start it yet, because we do not have the ignition source yet, but this experement with a turbine has been a lot of fun and very interesting. We plan on starting it in a contolled space that will be 100% safe to anybody around it if anything goes wrong.

 

So what do all of you think about this project me and my firend are trying out? We already have built a internal combustion engine from scratch, and it worked! Ill see if I can post pictures of the turbine later when he gets them to me, untill then comment on it as you please!

 

Colin C

[phazan]

Thats cool! I would love to do something like that!! Can you post some pictures or videos when its done? That would be cool.

[Robbie]

Ill see if I can post pictures of the turbine later when he gets them to me, untill then comment on it as you please!

 

Hmmmm, I guess thats a yes?

[TheStig]

Okay here are a few pic of it. You can get the general idea of how big it is and eveything so enjoy!

 

Colin C

 

EDIT: updated with smaller pics.

Now here I am adding some metal tape to the turbine. You can get a better idea of how big it is in this picture. The black square is the front fan that is also made using a computer cooling fan. Not the vaccum cleaner used to start the turbine. Hopefu

Heres the whole setup. You can see the fuel pump on the table and fuel lines leading to the turbine. Also, the fuel jug sitting on the yellow box (and me in the blue shirt!).

Looking down the turbing while "Dry" starting it with the vaccum. You can see the rear compressor blades, or as they call em in the biz, cooling fans for a computer. The red thing is a piece of ribbon that's used to show how much thrust we were getting.

[TheStig]

So today we tried to start it, and it pretty much set itself on fire (okay WE set it on fire, but it was an accident). Some of the fuel leaked out the side and cought fire after about 3 test start ups. Only on one of them did we get any thrust and it only laster for about a half a second, so we didnt say it actuially "Started", but heres a picture of it in flames. We need to work on it more, but it'll work in the end.

 

Colin C

[waterviper]

Colin Coon- The next Mythbuster!!

[WillMontu]

To quote the Mythbusters -

"Remember - Don't try anything you're about to see at home. We're what you call experts - We do this for a living"

[Carnage]

^ Hehe, I was just going to mention that line.

 

Try not to blow yourself up Colin. We don't want any TPR members getting a darwin award.

 

[TheStig]

Haha yeah were done with that engine right now, but plan on building a better one that's a little more complex. Thats for another date though...

 

Colin"Currently converting a weedwacker engine to radio control for one RC planes"C